Funny

I sighed nervously and tapped my fingers on the counter top at Bumpers. Then I glanced at my watch.

Where is she? I wondered for the millionth time. I was sure Jana had said to meet her here after school. Well, if she is coming, I thought, taking another sip of my drink, I hope she gets here soon. I felt like such a total weirdo standing up near the counter all by myself. I'd considered sitting with The Fantastic Foursome until Jana arrived, but I hadn't seen any of them come in either. Which was kind of unusual. Normally, The Fantastic Foursome always met at Bumpers after school. I wondered if they were avoiding me- although we HAD eaten lunch together at school, and they'd treated me about the same.

I sighed again, and was just starting to seriously consider leaving or finding someone to sit with when a commotion near the door drew my attention. A bunch of the girls from the cheerleading squad were coming in, laughing and talking. Duh! Cheerleading practice! I'd totally forgotten about that! *That's* where Jana had been- and Laura and Tammy, too. I immediatly spotted Jana walking in, who noticed me at the same time. I grabbed my drink and headed towards her and she said something to her friend, Melanie Edwards, then hurried in my direction.

"Jana has entered the building," I teased once we'd reached each other.

"Ha ha," she said with a grin. Then she looked worried. "What's the matter? You look really nervous."

"Probably because I AM nervous," I giggled. "First of all, I was afraid you weren't going to show up- then at the same time, I was afraid that you would."

Jana raised an eyebrow. "Why were you afraid I'd show up?"

"Because you said you had another plan and I'm scared to find out what it is and if it involves a certain guy."

Jana giggled. "Well, gee, what do you think? And I'm sorry if you had to wait awhile. I didn't think to remind you that I had cheerleading. I thought you knew that from Laura and Tammy."

"I do. I did. I forgot," I replied, letting Jana steer me over towards a small empty table near the center of the room. "What are we doing?"

"We're going to sit here at this table and wait for the football team to arrive," she answered, pushing me down into one of the seats, then sitting down herself.

"Oh, gosh! Really? How exciting! I've never seen a football team before!" I joked, pretending to be completely enthralled.

She rolled her eyes. "Cute." Then she grinned. "Your statements of wit and humor are constantly helping me become more and more convinced of how perfect a couple you and Mark are going to be."

I sobered immediately. "Oh no, slow down, woman. You make it sounds like we're betrothed or something. Look, I've spoken to him, like, once. And made an idiot of myself. So don't buy any wedding gift yet."

She just smiled then suddenly her eyes lit up. "Here come the first of them. Let's see... is Mark... here...- aha! There he is. And he's not really with anyone either... perfect. Ok now, again- leave this to me."

"Leave what to you? What are you going to do? Jana? Jana!" I hissed. I felt like hiding under the table as she half rose in her seat and waved at him. He had been on his way to the order counter when he noticed Jana waving, did a double take, then slowly turned and walked towards us.

"Oh, hey," he said as he stopped at our table. I thought he sounded a bit cautious or something. Oh, great! What if it was because of me? What if he was worried I'd act like an idiot again? I clenched my hands into tight fists under the table, trying to calm my nervousness. Why did he have to be so *cute*?

"Hey, Mark," Jana said sweetly, looking perfectly calm and at ease. "How did practice go?"

"Oh, it was... fine," Mark replied slowly, as if he was trying to pick his words. "It went ok. We, um, worked on some new plays."

"Cool," Jana said, nudging me with her foot. I knew she wanted me to say something instead of just sitting there with a goofy smile pasted on my face.

"Yeah, cool," I repeated quickly. Jana nudged me again, and I could tell that she had expected me to give a better answer than that, but what else are you supposed to say something like that? 'We worked on some new plays'- there was no way I was going to ask him what the plays were, that's for sure. I get totally lost in football conversations. The last thing I needed was to look even dumber.

"-sit down with us for awhile?" Jana was saying when I blinked back to the present. My eyes widened. Oh *no*! Sit down? Ack! I was already nervous enough! Did Jana want me to go into a complete catatonic state? "See, we're waiting for Melanie and Beth to get here," she continued, "but until they do, too many seats are empty and we're afraid someone will sit down with us and we won't be able to get rid of them when Mel and Beth come."

Mark laughed. "But you won't feel bad about kicking ME out when they arrive?"

"Of course not," Jana replied, laughing too. I also forced a laugh, not wanting to look out of place. "Besides, maybe we can help protect you from meteors."

They both laughed again and I raised my eyebrows. Meteors? What?

The next thing I knew, Mark was pulling out the chair across from me and sitting down.

"So, what's up?" He asked once he was settled.

"The ceiling!" I burst out, then somehow managed to keep from slapping my hand over my mouth. I can't believe I said that! I screamed inwardly. It was one of those incredibly dumb, corny jokes that you only use around really good friends who know you well enough to realize you're not as stupid as you sound. And here I'd gone and said it in front of MARK PETERS of all people! I wanted to die.

Mark and Jana both looked at me in astonishment, then at each other and burst into laughter. I felt confused, then embarrassed, then unsure if they were laughing at me or what I'd said.

"Oh, Funny," Jana gasped a moment later. "I'm sorry! It's just- it's just-" and she started giggling again and shoke her head.

Mark had stopped laughing by now, although he was still smiling.

"You know what," he said. "I think I'm going to go get myself a drink. Do either of you guys want something?"

"Oh!" Jana cried suddenly, popping up out of her seat. "You stay here, Mark. I was just going to go get something myself- what do you want? I'll get it for you." Oh no, oh no. Jana don't LEAVE me here ALONE!

He looked surprised. "Oh. Ok." He gave her his order and handed her some money, and then she took off towards the counter.

Mark and I looked after her. Then he turned to me and grinned, motioning over his should with his head.

"Someone's thirsty," he noted.

I giggled and nodded. We were both silent a minute, and I desperately searched for something to say. Anything to say. Well, except another one of my retarded jokes. It sorta struck me as funny that both Mark and I who normally, with other people, never shut up, were now suddenly both speechless. I giggled in spite of myself.

He looked at me. "What? What are you laughing at?"

I just shook my head and giggled again. He grinned.

"Oh, right," he said. "I forgot- you're the girl who never stops giggling."

"It makes me healthy," I grinned.

"Oh, really?" He laughed. "How so?"

"Laughing is good for your lungs," I explained. "It, I dunno, cleans them out or something."

"Well, that's news to me," he mused. "But hey, it's like they say I guess, you learn something new everyday."

"And I'm sure that's a bit of information you'll hang on to the rest of your life," I giggled.

"You bet," he answered in mock seriousness. "I'm going to tell everyone I meet from now on how great laughing is for your lungs." He turned to his left and grabbed Bill Soliday, (who happened to be walking past our table), by the arm. "Hey, Bill! Guess what? Laughing cleans your lungs out!"

Mark and I both broke up as Bill gave us a 'you're nuts' look and continued on.

"He looked impressed," Mark said with a grin, and I laughed harder.

"Maybe we should start a club," I offered. "A healthy-lung awareness club."

"What a great idea!" Mark said, snapping his fingers. "We can call it Laugh Your Way to Health or something."

" 'Where every meeting is a laughing matter'," I quipped and we both started laughing again. For the first time, I really started to relax. Mark was a riot- who else would have fun over such a dumb topic? Maybe we really were good together.

Just then, Jana reappeared, carrying two drinks. She handed one to Mark, then sat down.

"What's so funny?" She asked, noticing our mirth.

"Nothing," I giggled.

"We're cleaning our lungs out," Mark said with a grin. "Wanna join us?"

Jana raised her eyebrows but laughed along with us anyway.

"Awesome, Jana! You're doing great!" Mark joked. "Funny, I think we should ask her to join our club."

"Definitely," I agreed and Jana just shook her head.

"I'm not even going to ask," she said.

The three of us talked about school for awhile, until Beth and Melanie came up.

"Oh, hi, guys," Jana greeted them.

"Sorry we're late," Beth said quickly, glancing at Mark, then back at Jana and raised her eyebrows. Jana just smiled. It suddenly clicked to me that Jana must have had all this set up. She had gotten her friends to come over after a certain amount of time, in case things really flopped with Mark sitting with us. A kind of way out. But things had been going great, and I was kinda sad that it was going to end. Of course, knowing Jana, she probably had another plan with getting Mark and I together and alone. I wondered what tomorrow would bring.

"I guess that's my cue," Mark laughed, standing up and grabbing his drink. "I need to go talk to Shane and Derek for a minute though anyway. It was nice talking to you guys," he added, smiling at Jana then at me. I smiled back, feeling a few butterflies dance in my stomach.

"Bye, Mark," Jana called after him as Beth and Mel sank into the seats across from us, then she turned to grin at me. "So, how'd it go? When I left you guys? It looked like you guys were laughing pretty hard."

"Yeah," I answered with a smile. "It was fine, it was fun." Then I grabbed her by the arm. "I can't believe you did that to me though! Left me with him all by myself! I thought I was going to die!"

"But you didn't," Jana insisted. "You guys got along fine."

I shrugged. "I guess. I was still nervous though."

"That's a good thing," Melanie assured me. "The more nervous you are, the more you're meant to be together."

"You better trust her, Funny," Beth grinned. "Mel's the expert, you know."

Melanie stuck her tongue out at Beth and we all laughed.

"Very clever with all your planning here today, Jana," I told her. "Timing it all with Melanie and Beth."

She shrugged. "It wasn't hard. And I wanted to make sure we had a way to get rid of him if things didn't go well. Not that I was really worried, but hey- you never know."

"So what's your next plan, Morgan?" Beth asked.

Jana tilted her head. "I'm not sure yet. But I'll think of something, don't worry."